14 Activities and Games for Kids to play on the beach
Rafiki loves the beach. He's normally pretty content to spent a day digging a massive hole. If he gets bored, or if we've got other kids with us then here's some other games we've enjoyed. Just remember not to be annoying and take stuff to the beach that you're not going to either put in the bin or take home with you. Eg if you're going to have a water fight, there's no need for water balloons which'll just pop and end up in the sea. A well aimed bucket will be more effective anyway.
- Collect shells
- Draw a picture in the sand
- Make Sand Angels
- Build a pebble tower & make art from pebbles
- Hunt for fossils
- Water fight
- Have a peek in rockpools
- Use a stick to make a sundial, and mark off where the shadow is every hour.
And if you fancy some games that are a little more structured:
Blanket Bounce
Get 2 or more kids to hold the corners of a towel out open. Put a ball in the middle and see how long you can keep bouncing it up without dropping it.
Bowling
Get some old bottles/ yoghurt pots/ tubs etc. You might want to weigh them down a little with some sand to stop them from blowing over. Stack them into a tower and throw a ball at them to try and knock them down.
Ultimate Sandcastling
Take your construction skills to the next level by raiding the recycling tub and the cupbord at home that houses all the utensils that you haven't used for years. Bring pots, pipes, funnels, moulds etc. Probably ones that you're not likely to use for cooking again. Experiment with pouring and moulding the wet sand to see what you can make.
Shell Throw
Draw some concentric circles in the sand. Assign value to each of the rings (a bit like a dartboard but not so complicated). Stand well back and throw shells, seeing who can win the most points.
Scavenger Hunt
Can you find:
- Driftwood
- Sea Glass
- Seaweed
- shells
- wet sand
- something dry
- something slimy
Water Bucket Relay
Each player is going to need their own bucket and cup. The empty bucket gets placed higher up the beach, away from the water, it cannot move from there. Each person has to fill their bucket with water, only using the cup. The first person to fill the bucket wins. To make it a bit more fair, you can put older kids buckets higher up the beach.
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